Friday, July 31, 2009

Rays Get a Catcher

I only post this because it is out there and I've got to think it will have an eventual impact on the Bulls. I’ll leave it to those more knowledgeable than I to make sense of it. The Rays claimed off waivers a catcher in the San Diego system named Jose Lobaton and assigned him to Montgomery. The puzzle is that they put him on the 40-man roster. But maybe you have to do that if you’re trying to get someone through the waiver system (if I'm showing my ignorance surely someone will correct me).

Here’s the odd part: The Rays now have five catchers on their 40-man roster (Navarro, Hernandez, our John Jaso, re-habbing Shawn Riggans, and the new guy, Jose Labaton). Here’s what makes it even weirder: Not one of them appears to be a top quality major league catcher. OK, I like Michel Hernandez and would love to have him in Durham, but how good is he, really? Hard to tell with his lack of playing time. So you’ve got to think that a couple of those guys are not long for the Rays.

4 comments:

  1. Well, I guess I should refresh your site before I comment, since I just mentioned this in my other comment. Odd thing about this is that the most common Rays trade rummor I read about is Victor Martinez, who is another catcher (though, to be fair, he does play 1B also. However, if they picked him up, I am sure they would rather have him replace Navarro than Pena).

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  2. Hard to know about how viable the Martinez rumor could be. What little I've heard says his pure defense isn't all that good, but good game-calling/leadership skills.

    I have heard, though, that you do have to put a guy claimed off waivers on the 40-man so that's one puzzle solved.

    Here's a thought: Good chance that Riggans could be put on waivers (thus off 40-man) and there's a good chance that no one would claim him because of his injury history and he'd end up in Durham (unless yet once again I don't understand baseball rules). That still leaves 4 catchers on the 40-man, which still doesn't make all that much sense.

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  3. Well, it looks like the Martinez deal isn't happening for the Rays either. It must be nice to be one of those large market teams.

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